Play It Where It Lies: On Scottie Scheffler and How We Respond

Early Friday morning, as the second round of the PGA Championship was slated to begin, a person was struck by a vehicle outside of Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. That person lost their life, and traffic was slowed as police looked to properly assess the situation. World’s number one golfer Scottie Scheffler was heading to the course to begin his pre-round routine ahead of his 8 a.m. tee time, and the commotion delayed him. He attempted to drive around, only to be stopped by an officer. After what Scheffler calls, “a misunderstanding,” the golfer continued on. The officer attached himself to Scheffler’s car, resulting in him being dragged a bit. The officer then implored Scheffler to stop his car. He then opened the door, dragged Scheffler out and placed him in handcuffs. Scheffler was booked and detained for an hour, and the start of the round of golf itself was pushed back for about an hour for everyone. At about 10 a.m. Eastern, he stepped into the course to a rousing ovation and began his round with a birdie on the first hole.

Let’s establish this: most of what I will say will not have a definitive solution. There will be little authoritative voice here. The reason why I must say that is because there are a few factors surrounding this that are the basis for a lot of the tension in the responses to this situation. This is especially true if Black people, who are very informed about how police tend to deal with troublemakers who are Black. Add to that the fact that this happened in Louisville, where Breonna Taylor  unfortunately lost her life due to the actions of corrupt police officers just a few years ago. Taylor’s killing at the hands of police was one of the many cases that received global attention, and is another in the long line of senseless deaths that have happened due to interactions with the police. There are people, a lot of them who are White, who found it unfair that Scheffler was detained, even calling for the mayor to intervene to help deescalate the situation. It’s difficult not to at least raise the question if some of those same people called for justice or reform after Taylor was killed. The reason for that angst is that even if Scheffler was mistakenly detained and charged, there are so many people who look like me who do not get to walk away from mistakes by the police, especially to go shoot a round of golf. Scheffler’s mugshot is all over the Internet. Breonna Taylor’s funeral portrait and murals in her name are all over that same Internet, and that is an inescapable truth. 

So what do we do? What is the proper way to respond? Again, I do not have a definitive answer but I do know it starts with acknowledging and being aware of the disgust some of us have. Yes, we are going to make our witty remarks about it. We are going to throw jabs at people who are apparently ignorant to the mistreatment of Black people by police. But one of the more unfortunate things about pointing out the juxtaposition of Scheffler and Breonna Taylor is that some of the others can slip our minds. As I pointed out former tennis star James Blake and former NBA player Thabo Sefalosha being pro athletes that had awful encounters with police, I forgot about what happened to Sterling Brown, formerly of the Milwaukee Bucks. It can be difficult to keep a conscious account of every bad police interaction because there have been so many, thus driving the annoyance and frustration with a sudden rise in people who do not look like me wanting a similar justice that I and people who look like me have been screaming to have for decades.

As of me writing this, we do not know how wrong or right Scottie Scheffler was in his encounter with the police. We know he was charged, booked and released. But as sportswriter Spencer Hall put it, trusting the word of Louisville police without much of a second thought is at the very least naïve, given previous circumstances. Even with ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington attempting to maybe help diffuse the situation, the question can be asked how that interaction would have gone if it were Michael Collins or Michael Eaves, who are both Black, with their phone out, reporting. I’m not saying any situation involving them was a guarantee to be different. But I do not ignore the patterns of history, and neither should any of us. 

The most important part in this is that a person lost their lives long before Scheffler and the police officer ever encountered each other. As he and the PGA Championship continue on through the weekend, that needs to be the thing most preserved in the matter. Other than that, this is like any shot in golf: we have to play it as it lies.